The rules have changed today
What makes the QB-9 different? I'll just hit the high points here. (For the full particulars, see Ayre's white paper.)
To achieve the maximum resolution, a D/A converter must use a high-precision clock circuit running at a fixed frequency to control the timing of the…
I might get burned up by the sun
The obvious question, I reckon, is that if using a computer as a source component for music isn't brain-dead easy, why bother? Well, spinning LPs isn't brain-dead easy either—people put up with the aggravation because they like the sound. Now, for the first time ever,…
Playing the 24-bit/44.1kHz version of Rhapsody, I was hard-pressed to hear a great amount of difference between the QB-9 and the Bel Canto combination. Perhaps the Ayre let me hear deeper into the acoustic of the…
Description: Asynchronous transfer mode, USB-input, oversampling (16x) digital-to-analog converter with minimum-phase digital filter. Input: USB 1.1–compliant. Sample rates supported: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96kHz. Word lengths supported: up to 24 bits. Maximum output levels: 2.05V RMS (unbalanced outputs), 4.10V RMS (balanced outputs). Frequency ranges: DC–20kHz (at 44.1kHz), DC–22kHz (at 48kHz), DC–40kHz (at 88.2kHz), DC–44kHz (at 96kHz). Signal/noise: 110dB (unweighted, no reference level given).
Dimensions: 8.5" (216mm) W by 3" (76mm) H by 11.5" (290mm) D. Weight…
Digital Sources: Ayre C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 1.33GHz iBook (2GB RAM) with 250GB LaCie & 320GB Western Digital Passport external hard drives; Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 USB-to-S/PDIF converter; Bel Canto e.One DAC3 D/A processor.
Preamplifier: Aesthetix Calypso.
Power Amplifiers: Moscode 401HR and 402Au, Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Klipsch Palladium P-39F, Vienna Acoustics Klimt The Kiss.
Cables: Interconnect: Shunyata Research, Stealth Metacarbon. Speaker: Shunyata Research, Stealth Dream. AC: Shunyata Research…
John Atkinson's "Music Served: Extracting Music from Your PC" is a must-read; start there. While you don't need the latest or most powerful computer to use as a server, you do, as JA observed, want a quiet one. My iBook did yeoman duty in this regard—from my listening position, I was never aware of its fan even turning on.
In future, however, I believe I'll take JA's suggestion to use a Mac mini; I discovered how much better my iBook sounds when I maxed out its RAM at 2GB. I can jam 6GB into the…
I examined the measured behavior of the Ayre Acoustics QB-9 (footnote 1) using the Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and "As We See It" in the January 2008 issue), as well as, for some tests, my Audio Precision System One Dual Domain. I drove the QB-9 with the USB 2.0 output of my Intel MacBook running OS10.4.11 for the testing, playing back WAV files using Bias Peak 6.2. Unlike iTunes, Peak interacts with the OSX CoreAudio engine to ensure that audio at the correct sample rate is sent out through the USB and FireWire ports; nevertheless, I double-…
The genre has, so far, failed to attract the lions of the loudspeaker industry. Yes, the Klipsch and Tannoy lines still include some high-efficiency models—living fossils, mostly, from an era when all amps were low-power amps—and, among smaller…
Digital Sources: Theta Digital Miles CD player (S/PDIF output); Benchmark DAC1 & DAC1 HDR D/A converters; Sony Vaio laptop running Sony Soundforge 9; M Audio Fast Track Ultra USB interface.
Power Amplifiers: Pass Labs Aleph 3 & XA 30.5, Rogue Audio M180.
Integrated Amplifiers: Simaudio Moon i3.3, Manley Labs Stingray iTube.
Loudspeakers: Revel Performa F30 & Ultima Gem, Totem Acoustic Forest.
Cables: Digital: Stereovox HDVX coaxial. Interconnect: Sain Line Systems Pure Balanced & Pure. Speaker: Kimber Kable BiFocal XL. AC: Sain…